Best LinkedIn Learning Courses

Best for Soft Skills: Master In-Demand Professional Soft Skills

• Course Length: 11 hours
• Skill Level: All
• Notable Features: Comprehensive yet engaging curriculum
  

Why We Chose It

Master In-Demand Professional Soft Skills takes the top spot for soft skills because the learning path (series of individual courses) helps you develop and refine the essential soft skills employers want and expect.

Pros & Cons

Overview

We like this learning path since it presents soft skills training in a comprehensive yet engaging way. Common soft skills include emotional intelligence (understanding how other people feel), communication, critical thinking, and teamwork. This course of study is for anyone who wants to improve their soft skills and have better interpersonal relationships—both in and outside of the office.

This learning path contains nine hours of content across 13 pre-recorded video courses:

• Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
• Building Resilience
• Preparing Yourself for Change
• Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making
• Time Management Fundamentals
• Essentials of Team Collaboration
• Communication Foundations
• Negotiation Foundations
• Persuading Others
• Writing in Plain Language
• Banish Your Inner Critic to Unleash Creativity
• How to Proactively Manage Conflict as an Employee
• Business Ethics

Videos are presented in bite-size chunks to accommodate your busy life. You’ll also have access to quizzes and downloadable material to enhance your learning. 

Individual courses are taught by 13 industry professionals: Dr. Gemma Leigh Roberts, Tatiana Kolovou, Erin Shrimpton, Becki Saltzman, Dave Crenshaw, Guy Kawasaki, Dorie Clark, Brenda Bailey-Hughes, Leslie O'Flahavan, Denise Jacobs, Lisa Gates, Laurie Ruettimann, and Bob McGannon. Among them, there are college professors, speakers, authors, and an organizational psychologist. 

Each course is well-rated by other students, receiving thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of likes. Unfortunately, the LinkedIn rating system doesn’t allow for more detailed feedback, which could help to evaluate each class.

You’ll receive a LinkedIn certificate of completion for every individual course you finish as well as another when you complete the entire learning path. Select courses also grant continuing education units (CEUs), which you may need to maintain industry-related certifications.

Best for Entrepreneurs: Start and Manage a Small Business

• Course Length: 9 hours
• Skill Level: Aspiring business owners
• Notable Features: Covers the basics and then some of starting a business
  

Why We Chose It

Start and Manage a Small Business is our pick as the best for entrepreneurs since the learning path outlines what you need to know to start your business on a solid foundation.

Pros & Cons

Overview

If you're just getting started planning a business, it can be an overwhelming process. We like this learning path because it walks you through the various things you need to know to successfully—and legally—launch your small business. This path has the bases covered.

Designed for anyone looking to make the leap to self-employment, Start and Manage a Small Business includes nine hours of video content and 10 individual courses:

• 20 Questions to Help You Start a Business
• Entrepreneurship Foundations
• Entrepreneurship: Finding and Testing Your Business Idea
• Understanding Business
• Creating a Business Plan
• Business Law for Managers
• Foundations of Raising Capital
• Finance Essentials for Small Business
• Finance Foundations: Income Taxes
• Guy Kawasaki on Entrepreneurship

Lessons are short and easy to absorb and include supplemental material including quizzes and downloadable worksheets.

During this path, you’ll learn from well-known entrepreneurship guru Guy Kawasaki and 10 other experts, including Madecraft, Dana Robinson, Kim Kaupe, Dave Crenshaw, Eddie Davila, Mike Figliuolo, Jo-Ná Williams, Jay Clouse, Jim Stice, and Earl Stice. Instructors are business founders, authors, professors, speakers, and consultants. 

This learning path is well-rated by many other learners. Individual courses received over 13,700 likes.

You’ll receive a certificate of completion from LinkedIn for every course you finish. You’ll also get a learning path certificate of completion after you get through the last class. Check individual courses for CEUs granted, if any.

Best for Marketing: Develop Your Marketing Skills

• Course Length: 7 hours
• Skill Level: All
• Notable Features: Quizzes and worksheets keep you engaged and reiterate lessons
  

Why We Chose It

Develop Your Marketing Skills gives you the knowledge required to be successful as a modern online marketer.

Pros & Cons

Overview

No matter where you are in your knowledge of digital marketing, there's something new happening all the time. We like this learning path due to its robust coverage of digital marketing concepts, such as customer-brand experiences, social media marketing, and marketing campaigns. If you want to expand your digital marketing skillset, this could be an excellent course of study for you.

This path features six individual courses with a total of 7 hours of video content. Individual courses include:

• Marketing Foundations
• Digital Marketing Foundations
• Social Media Marketing: Strategy and Optimization
• How to Write a Marketing Plan
• Social Media Marketing: Content Batching and Repurposing
  
• Digital Marketing Tools: Create a Marketing Campaign from Start to Finish

Since video lessons are short, you can squeeze in some study time whenever you have a spare moment. Develop Your Marketing Skills also features downloadable worksheets and integrated quizzes to keep you engaged and help you apply what you learn. 

The learning path includes classes taught by marketing experts, consultants, and strategists, including Marta Dapena-Baron, Brad Batesole, Martin Waxman, Goldie Chan, Joanna Yung, Anson Alexander. 

Users are pleased with this learning path; most individual courses average a 4.5/5 stars, with one course receiving nearly 80,000 viewers.

As you complete each course, you’ll receive certificates of completion as well as another one at the conclusion of the learning path. If you need CEUs, be sure to check for them under each course.

Best for Finance: Getting Started in Finance and Accounting

• Course Length: 10 hours
• Skill Level: Beginner
• Notable Features: Covers budgets, bookkeeping, and taxes
  

Why We Chose It

Getting Started in Finance and Accounting is our pick as the best for finance because the learning path helps you understand and manage the financial health of a business.

Pros & Cons

Overview

This learning path gets top honors because it goes into depth about finance and accounting concepts, including budgeting, understanding financial statements, and interpreting and analyzing financial data.

This course of study is designed for the beginner and can be a useful resource if you find yourself suddenly tasked with finance- and accounting-related duties at work.

This learning path comes with six video courses with 10 total hours of content. The curriculum includes the following courses:

• Accounting Foundations
• Accounting Foundations: Understanding the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
• Financial Accounting Foundations
• Business Tax Foundations
• Finance Foundations
• Budgeting in Real Life

You’ll learn from finance and accounting professors Earl Kay Stice, Jim Stice, Denise Probert, Michael McDonald, and Natalie Taylor. Course lesson videos are short so you can study when it’s convenient. Plus, to ensure you can remember and use what you learn, courses include quizzes, worksheets, and other downloadable resources.

As you move through each milestone in the learning path, you’ll receive a LinkedIn certificate of completion. At the end of the path, you’ll receive an additional certificate. Select courses may grant CEUs, so be sure to check for them if you need them.

Best for Project Management: Getting Started as a Project Manager

• Course Length: 10 hours
• Skill Level: Beginners
• Notable Features: Covers projects from start to finish
  

Why We Chose It

Getting Started as a Project Manager is our choice as the best for project management thanks to the learning path, which features a robust project management curriculum.

Pros & Cons

Overview

Designed for those who want to get into the project management profession, Getting Started as a Project Manager shows how to take a project from idea to completion—all while sticking to an established timeline, scope, and budget. We like this learning path because it teaches you the essential information you need to manage projects of any size, from start to completion.

Getting Started as a Project Manager features 10 hours of video content, which spans these seven courses:

• Project Management Foundations
• Project Management Foundations: Ethics
• Project Management Foundations: Requirements
• Project Management Foundations: Schedules
• Project Management Foundations: Budgets
• Project Management Foundations: Teams
• Project Management Foundations: Communication

You’ll study under certified Project Management Professionals Bonnie Biafore, Bob McGannon, Daniel Stanton, and Doug Rose. If you’ve never heard of these PMPs, you can visit their LinkedIn profiles to learn more about them before deciding to take their courses.

To supplement the videos, each course also includes quizzes to check your comprehension and other digital resources to extend your learning. To make learning fast and easy, videos are short and easy to digest.

This course of study does not result in PMP certification. However, you’ll receive a certificate of completion when you pass each class and finish the full learning path. If you need CEUs, be sure to check for them under each course.

Best for Sales: Develop Your Sales Knowledge and Skills

• Course Length: 6 hours
• Skill Level: All
• Notable Features: Short videos and engaging content
  

Why We Chose It

Develop Your Sales Knowledge and Skills gets our vote as the best for sales because the learning path helps you genuinely connect with your prospect, earn their trust, and close the sale.

Pros & Cons

Overview

We like this learning path because it will help you develop the skills you need to win sales, while using strategies that feel authentic. If you’re new to sales or want to improve your close rate, this could be an ideal learning opportunity for you.

Develop Your Sales Knowledge and Skills contains six hours of video content and eight courses:

• Managing Your Sales Process
• Inclusive Selling: Selling Across Culture, Race, and Gender Differences
• Asking Great Sales Questions
• Sales: Analytics-Driven Storytelling
• Sales: Handling Objections
• Sales Negotiation
• Sales: Closing Strategies
• Sales Strategy: Using AI and Automation to Sell More

Videos are brief sound bites, making learning easy to squeeze in when you have a break in your schedule. To gamify your learning experience, courses involve short and fun quizzes. To cement new concepts into your brain, you’ll have access to downloadable worksheets and suggestions for further reading. 

You’ll learn from sales experts Jeff Bloomfield, Meridith Powell, Mark Donnolo, Dean Karrel, Lisa Earle McLeod, and Miles Croft. Among these professionals are authors, coaches, consultants, executives, founders, speakers, and strategists. To get more insight about your instructors, visit their LinkedIn profiles.

The majority of learners seem satisfied with this learning path. Some of the courses have even received thousands of likes.

To note your achievement, you’ll get a certificate of completion for every course you finish. When you get through the last course, you’ll get a certificate for the entire learning path. Need CEUs? Be sure to check for that information under each class.